Clean Chic at Nordstrom’s Fall Designer Preview

By Caty Gordon and Kaitlyn Jenkins

June 22, 2010

Nordstrom in Tysons Corner welcomed 352 VIP guests, designer collections and European editor-at-large for Vogue, Hamish Bowles, on Thursday, June 17 for D.C.’s Fall 2010 Designer Preview. The event included an in-store boutique and runway fashion show featuring the designs of Christian Dior, Dolce&Gabbana, Jason Wu, Lanvin, Michael Kors, Missoni, St. John Couture, Valentino and Versace. The show lent itself as evidence that, as shoppers say goodbye to summer, designers are welcoming the return of 1950s elegance with simple silhouettes, minimalism and cinched waists for fall.

The evening began with a private reception with Bowles for Nordstrom’s VIP members. The Designer Preview, catered by Design Cuisine, offered champagne infused with lavender and rosemary and watermelon sangria. Hors d’oeuvres included firecracker shrimp, heirloom tomato tartlet, lobster tarts with vanilla and chervil, shitake mushroom tempura with tuna carpaccio and paper chicken with lemongrass sauce.

During the reception, guests were invited to shop at the in-store designer boutique with the assistance of Nordstrom’s personal stylists. Standouts in the boutique included edgy leopard satin prints from Dolce & Gabbana, neon-colored dresses from Versace and elegant jackets from St. John Couture and Michael Kors. Guests shopped and mingled to upbeat music provided by DJ Heather Femia.

The runway show began promptly at 7 p.m. with opening remarks by Nordstrom’s store manager Michelle Korb and featured highlights for the upcoming fashion season. Both Versace and Lanvin played up the return of leather gloves, while St. John Couture featured sequined pants and metallic jackets. Jessica Arnold, a guest in the audience, raved about high-heeled mini-boots with matching knitted knee socks. “I loved the boots [because] they’re not quite up to your knee,” she said.

Straightforward sophistication is the theme that will be running through shopping racks come fall. Pencil skirts from St. John Couture, Valentino and Dolce & Gabbana create slim figures and elongate the leg, as do the boot-cut dress pants from Christian Dior and St. John.

Sweater dresses were common among the collections of Missoni and Michael Kors, as were polished and put-together ensembles of deep purple, as presented by Versace and Lanvin. Jason Wu also presented clean and chic jackets that narrow the waistline.

Following the show, guests were invited to continue shopping at the designer boutique and enjoy decadent desserts and champagne. But while the show was closed the public, the secret’s out. Fall fashion is all about chic sophistication and sleek, reductive clothes.

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